A variety of approaches are conventionally taken for working with action items and other tasks. One of the most basic conventional approaches is a simple list of action items handwritten on a piece of paper and checked off as completed. Project management software is a contrasting example of a more sophisticated conventional approach that can facilitate the organization of projects entailing thousands of tasks and personnel. However, all of the conventional approaches have limitations related to their user interfaces and to their capabilities for intelligently assessing and automatically handling action items in an unconstrained environment.
Simple Lists
One of the simplest methods of recording and communicating a set of action items is listing them on a sheet of loose-leaf paper with a writing instrument such as a pen. Writing information by hand on a piece of paper is inexpensive and can be done quickly and easily with little preparation. The traditional method is also flexible in that a writer can generally write in any format anywhere on the paper. And, the completion of an action item can be indicated with a simple handwritten check mark. One of the limitations with handwritten work is that it is not easily manipulated or transferred to other contexts. In other words, modifying or transferring a piece of handwritten text typically requires rewriting the text on another medium.
Organizer Notebooks
Organizer notebooks provide a convenient alternative to loose-leaf paper for listing action items. An organizer notebook is a specially formatted notebook that aids in recording, organizing, and coordinating handwritten action items. To aid in scheduling action items, these notebooks typically incorporate a calendar. Although handy, bulk is one disadvantage for organizer notebooks. Like other traditional handwritten paper media, organizer notebooks do not easily provide for manipulating the information contained within.
Computerized Action Item Lists
As an alternative to using organizer notebooks, some people prefer to transfer handwritten action item lists from loose-leaf paper into personal computers. Specifically, with the widespread use of personal computers, textual information such as action item lists is readily recorded using word processing software running on a personal computer. The advantage of such electronic methods for recording information is that the information can be easily stored and transferred to other remote computing devices and electronic media. Such electronically recorded text can also be easily corrected, modified, and manipulated in a variety of ways.
Organizer Software
As an alternative approach to word processing software, conventional organizer software is available for personal computer systems to facilitate recording, organizing, and scheduling action items. Organizer software is analogous to an electronic version of the aforementioned, paper-based organizer notebook. Consequently, it facilitates manipulating action items following entry into a computer system. Organizer software is often included as a component of a larger software package, such as a project manager software package, a calendar software package, or an e-mail software package. Such software overcomes many of the limitations that are inherent both with recording action items on paper media and with converting action item lists into conventional electronic format via word processing software. However, conventional organizer software has substantial shortcomings related to its static nature and its lack of intelligent capabilities.
Being inherently static, conventional organizer software is limited in its capability to assess an action item to determine the potential for automatic completion and to automatically complete an action item. Consider the example of a user including ‘send my wedding photograph to my niece’ and ‘get my teeth cleaned at the dentist’ in an action item list. Conventional organizer software cannot differentiate between the potentially automatic nature of the former action item and the inherent manual nature of the latter. Conventional organizer software does not incorporate an intelligent feature to determine if the wedding photograph is available digitally and can be e-mailed directly to the niece, perhaps without human intervention. Thus, if the user wishes to consider automatically handling ‘send my wedding photograph to my niece,’ the user must manually determine: 1) the availability of a digital wedding photograph; 2) the location of the wedding photograph digital file, if it exists; and 3) the availability of sender and user e-mail resources.
Conventional organizer software has additional limitations related to assessing and processing action items. Conventional organizer software is limited in its capabilities to correlate an action item with resources required to complete the action item. Referring again to the wedding photograph example, conventional organizer software cannot automatically correlate the availability of the file, the location of the file, and the presence of e-mail capabilities to the action item. Furthermore, conventional organizer software is limited in its potential to dynamical track the availability of resources having potential utility for processing an action item.
In another area related to assessing action items, conventional organizer software also has limited capabilities to seek resources over a network for processing an action item. Continuing with the wedding photograph example, conventional organizer software cannot seek the digital file over a computer network, for example locating it on the hard drive of a second, networked computer.
After determining that sufficient resources are available, a user of conventional organizer software can manually complete an action item. To complete the wedding-photography action item, the user might go through the steps of: 1) closing the organizer software program; 2) opening an e-mail software program; 3) creating a new e-mail message; 4) pasting the digital photograph into the message; 5) pressing the ‘send’ button on the e-mail software's user interface to initiate a sequence of transmission steps culminating in transmitting the e-mail; 6) closing the e-mail program; 7) waiting; 8) receiving a reply that the photograph was successfully received by the niece; 9) opening the organizer software package; and 10) noting in the organizer software program that the task was successfully completed. The extent of manual steps in this example is representative of the limitations of conventional organizer software.
In addition to being inherently manual, conventional organizer systems have user-interface limitations. One of the limitations with the graphical user interface (GUI) systems of conventional software-based organizer systems is that a user must generally enter text by typing on a keyboard. For many people, entering text by keyboard typing is slower, more cumbersome, and less intuitive than handwriting. Although recent advances have been made in reducing the size of personal computers, they are still not as portable or accessible as traditional pen and paper. In contrast, traditional pen and paper provides the user with considerable flexibility for editing an action item and recording information in a personalized, intuitive format. Consequently, many people select conventional pen and paper over software-based organizer systems for maintaining action item lists.
To address the shortcomings of traditional keyboard and mouse interfaces, there have been various attempts to create an electronic tablet that can record handwriting for general computer utility. Such electronic tablets typically comprise a screen and a handheld stylus device that is similar to a pen. A user can manipulate the stylus to write on the electronic tablet in a manner similar to the use of traditional pen and paper. The electronic tablet can ‘read’ the strokes of the user's handwriting with the handheld device and render the handwriting in electronic form on the tablet's screen and/or the computer's display as ‘electronic ink.’ This electronic tablet approach can be employed in a variety of ways including on a personal computer and on a handheld computing device. One of the limitations of conventional software-based organizer systems is the lack of a user interface that is adapted to facilitate entering and manipulating action items with electronic ink.
Whether entered with electronic ink based on handwriting gestures or with conventional keyboard typing, many people are predisposed to written expression in the format of natural language. Conventional organizer software is also limited in its user-interface capabilities to enter action items via free-form, natural language text. Conventional organizer software does not offer a user the option to enter descriptive, natural language text and does not provide processing capabilities to derive an action item from text so entered. Returning to the action item example ‘send my wedding photograph to my niece,’ a user might express the intent of the action item with a range of descriptive text entries. For example, a user might enter ‘send Rachel my wedding picture’ or ‘send my June 2000 wedding photograph to niece.’ Conventional organizer software has limited capabilities to recognize the relationship between these textual descriptions of the same action item.
Code Schedulers
While organizer systems represent conventional software intended to facilitate user interaction with a list of action items, another type of conventional software is intended to facilitate the processing of computer code. Conventional computer systems often include code scheduling modules, such as chrons, batch scripts, or the equivalent, that schedule the computer's processing of instructions to optimize the computer's utilization of computing resources. For example, if a first instruction can utilize the result of a second instruction, this type of computing module can schedule the second instruction to be executed before the first instruction. One shortcoming of these conventional modules is their limitation in scheduling action items. Another shortcoming is their limitation in assessing and processing action items. Rather than action items, conventional code scheduling modules are optimized to process lines or blocks of code in a highly structured computing environment. Other limitations are related to those described above in reference to the limitations of conventional organizer software.
Project Management Software
Another type of conventional software deals with the utilization of project resources. Sometimes called project management software or project planning software, this type of software is a tool that assists a manager in following the completion of a project. Conventional project management software can also aid in planning and executing a project; for example helping a project manager to quickly evaluate alternatives for deploying project resources.
For example, the manager of a bridge construction project might use project management software to evaluate the positive schedule impact and negative cost impact of moving the construction workers from a 40-hour work week to a 60-hour work week. This could entail the manager manually inputting various resource scenarios and the software predicting the outcome. The manager might also use the software as an off-line tool to aid in his or her tracking of the stage of project completion. To utilize this capability, the manager would need to manually estimate the stage of completion of the projects tasks and milestones. Then, the manager would periodically need to make corresponding manual entries into the software. From these manual entries, the software might generate an overall view of the project status.
In summary, conventional project management software is off-line, manual, and requires meticulously detailed user input. Conventional project management software cannot assess a project task to determine the extent to which it can be completed automatically; and, it can not automatically process tasks. While action items concern activities in an unrestricted environment that is not well-defined, project tasks concern activities in the narrow context of a well-defined project that can be accurately represented in a software model. Furthermore, other limitations with conventional project management software are similar to those described above in reference to the limitations of conventional organizer software.
Process Control Software
Whereas conventional project management tools are intended to be used off-line, process control software is a type of conventional software that is frequently deployed in the on-line environment of a manufacturing process. This operating environment sometimes includes a distributed computing implementation of the software. On-line process control software can be used for such things as: controlling adding chemicals to a tank; starting a tank-agitation cycle; scheduling a batch sequence; and providing an indication of the completion of a chemical reaction so that an operator can empty a tank. Consequently, conventional process control software can provide real-time control in an operating environment that includes dynamic conditions. For example, conventional process control software can, in respond to an operator's instruction to ‘make a batch of blue paint,’ produce a product by controlling paint manufacturing machinery in real time. The control can respond to and correct for dynamic conditions. For example, the software might automatically add blue pigment ingredient to compensate for a off-color feedstock, thereby keeping the end product's color within product specifications.
While conventional process control software is responsive to changing conditions in its operating environment, the operating environment must be highly constrained. In fact, the process under control is frequently mathematically modeled to provide the precise definition that is required for proper software operation. For example, process control software suited to controlling the blue paint process that is described above would need to undergo significant customization to be useful in another, seemingly related, manufacturing process. Consequently, conventional process control software is limited in its utility for processing action items. Unlike process control instructions, action items concern activities in an unrestricted environment that is not well-defined. Additionally, conventional process control software cannot assess an instruction to determine the extent to which it can be completed with manual verses automatic control. Other limitations are similar to those described above in reference to the limitations of conventional organizer software.
Background Closing
In many instances, it would be desirable for a user to enter an action item into a computer and for a computer program to intelligently assess and process the action item. It would be desirable for a computer program to determine if the action item can be completed automatically, manually, or with a combination thereof. If an automatic processing was determined, the program could initiate automatically processing the action item. Alternatively, a computer could inform a user as to the potential for automatic processing so that the user can accordingly dictate the processing of the action item. If a combination was determined, it would be useful for the program to parse the processing of the action item into computer and manual steps.
In addition to the desirability of computer-based assessing and processing of action item, it would be desirable for a computer program to have capabilities related to tracking, identifying, and timing resources. It would be desirable for a computer program to track the availability of resources and to provide notification when adequate resources become available for automatically processing the action item. By timing the processing of an action item with the optimum availability of resources, the action item could be processed more efficiently than would be otherwise possible. It would also be useful for a computer to proactively seek resources over a network, such as a LAN or the Internet, for processing an action item. With appropriate resources identified, a computer could automatically complete an otherwise manual action item or offer a user several processing options.
Turning from functionality to user interface, in many instances it would be desirable for a user to interact with a list of action items entered into a computer system, such as a tablet personal computer, through a user interface optimized to facilitate handling action items. It would also be useful for an action item user interface to provide for entering action items with electronic ink and/or free form text.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a method and system for interacting with action items in an intuitive manner and for automatically and intelligently assessing and handling action items an inherently unstructured, unconstrained environment.